Transcript

This week questions have been asked about safety at the $1.83 billion project in Adelaide's southern suburbs. There have been claims that unrealistic dead lines have put workers at risk and cost lives.

In a moment I raise those matters with both SA Water's chief operating officer John Ringham and Adelaide Aqua's project director Duncan Whitfield.

But first this background report.

SIMON ROYAL, REPORTER: In July, Stateline went on a tour of the desal plant with SA Water's John Ringham who outlined how everything was going to plan.

JOHN RINGAM, SA WATER: That will be underwater that's where the sea water will come in.

SIMON ROYAL: But the next day a worker was killed after a load of steel held by the now controversial soft sling method fell on him.

DUNCAN WHITFIELD, ADELAIDE AQUA PROJECT DIRECTOR: We're going to do everything we can to make sure this never happens again.

SIMON ROYAL: This week, reports have linked up to three other death to the desal project but Safe Work SA says it's only treating the July death as a workplace fatality.

Safe Work SA says the other cases were a worker who died in his sleep at home, another was a traffic accident and a worker who died in February after inhaling diesel while siphoning it.

The organisation does not regard that death as a result of work activities.

The project's now running months behind schedule and won't be delivering water in December as promised.

There are also claims that the injury rate is twice the national average as pressure mounts to finish the job.

Claims we put to both SA Water and Adelaide Aqua's project manager Duncan Whitfield.

IAN HENSCHKE: Duncan Whitfield thanks for your time. Now there are claims that the desal project has a high rate of death and injuries. What's your response?

DUNCAN WHITFIELD: Thanks for inviting me, my response is we have unfortunately suffered one fatality on the contract here and one is far too high for me. It's terrible.

IAN HENSCHKE: What about the other deaths? There's talk of four deaths that have been on the overall project.

DUNCAN WHITFIELD: There were two other fatalities connected with the project on two other ancillary projects, not under my control, however, so I shouldn't really comment on those.

IAN HENSCHKE: Now the project is behind schedule.

SA Water's own documentation shows that in the first year there was zero time lost with injuries but since March this year that's changed.

How has it changed?

DUNCAN WHITFIELD: It's changed in a couple of ways really.

It changed in a couple of ways really the number of people on the project as we ramp up has more than doubled so just recently we had some 1,300 people involved in the project compared to last year which was less than a third of that.

Also, the recording of incidents has increased so I now have 22 safety personnel on site out there all the time recording these incidents and policing the safety.

IAN HENSCHKE: So you're saying that you're picking up more.

DUNCAN WHITFIELD: We will be. Yes, we are.

IAN HENSCHKE: Doesn't that say the site is becoming less safe if you're picking up more incidents?

DUNCAN WHITFIELD: That's one theory, of course, the pyramid of protection against the worst incident you can have, a fatality, is such that the more hazards that you can pick up on a day-to-day basis, statistically it's proven that the more you can pick up and learn from and correct, the more chance you've got of avoiding a medically treated injury or lost time injury or fatality.

IAN HENSCHKE: Well the union says that the building of the infrastructure and fitting it out is taking place at the same time and that's meaning that people are almost working on top of each other and that's making the workplace unsafe.

What's your reaction to that?

DUNCAN WHITFIELD: The accusations of working on top of each other are unfounded.

In fact, SA Water have helped me by funding - under the fixed price agreement of course, but by funding initiatives to decongest the site so that I don't have to build steel work on top of people working on mechanical electrical equipment, which in fact was the case when this fatality happened. I had decongested the site prior to that fatality.

IAN HENSCHKE: If there aren't really any safety issues then why are we seeing the stories saying safety is being put at risk?

DUNCAN WHITFIELD: We have had six lost time injuries on the site, several medically treated injuries and a whole host of first aid injuries.

There have been up to 1,300 people working on the site and there's been a tragic fatality.

I wouldn't agree that there is no - there are no safety issues. There blatantly are safety issues on any construction site.

We're working on it daily, every day, all of my team and all of my 22 safety people out in the field to both coach people and encourage people and enforce a set of non-negotiables such that this doesn't happen but it's a daily day by day exercise.

IAN HENSCHKE: So given the size of the project, are you saying that this is a safe project?

DUNCAN WHITFIELD: Um...we've had a fatality and it's cut everybody to the bone.

It's absolutely gutted myself and my team.

We're doing everything we can every day to make sure that never happens again.